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I had not really appreciated that Gilgamesh record until very very recently - like the last six months.
I mean, it had Hugh - of course it was good - but I didn't play it much and it never made much of an impression. Seemed too laid back. Or some other flaw I can't really think of now that I am not feeling that way!

well, whatever needed to happen happened, because it's been killing me these last months. Really lovely.

so I salute your selection.

SALUT!

I know exactly what you mean, the album is such a low-key affair that it can easily slide by without making a real impression. And I’ve even read a one-star review that dismissed it as little more than elevator music (the phrase “cloth-eared twat” springs to mind). But once you get tuned in to its particular wavelength - it's just full of delights.

Yes, Trevor Tomkins, no "p". Trevor was going to be at this week-end's Phil Miller tribute concert, playing on two of the pieces from "Before A Word Is Said", but sadly he has been unwell and can't participate. Would have been fun to hear him play alongside Roy Babbington and Peter Lemer on a couple of other pieces as was planned - recreating the original rhythm section of Barbara Thompson's Jubiaba...

I had not really appreciated that Gilgamesh record until very very recently - like the last six months.
I mean, it had Hugh - of course it was good - but I didn't play it much and it never made much of an impression. Seemed too laid back. Or some other flaw I can't really think of now that I am not feeling that way!

well, whatever needed to happen happened, because it's been killing me these last months. Really lovely.

so I salute your selection.

SALUT!

You know, just last night I was listening to Arriving Twice by Gilgamesh, for the first time in quite a while. And now I'm on to Another Fine Tune..., thanks to you reminding me of it.

I recall enjoying this one, but can't really remember a lot about it. But hearing it again just now, it's really nice! I need to spend more time with it.

I actually got and heard Another Fine Tune (the Spalax CD) before the debut and Arriving Twice. Having come into 'mesh by way of Tune in the first place, I always wondered why it apparently wasn't held in higher regard. Because yeah sure, the melodies hemselves are rather understated, it would seem - yet the arrangements are truly intricate and the playing simply outstanding. There are passages here which arguably outdo almost any other Canterburian treats in pure intricacy, for instance that insane web of sudden über-dissonance towards the end of "Darker Brighter". Also, those lighter parts are sometimes to-the-point textures of extremely subtle dissonance, more or less through the whole record. "Underwater Song" is probably one of the most beautiful things Alan G. came up with.

"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

I very much liked Another Fine Tune immediately I heard it but I have little bit more problems with Gilgamesh debut. I mean of course it is good but somehow it does not "click" with me as Another Fine Tune does. I think that presence of Hugh Hopper on Another Fine Tune helps a lot and makes a sound little bit beefier.

Yeah, now I'm remembering that....oops. I had it in my mind that Pip jumped on board with Hugh but we know that would have been impossible!

Wouldn't have been impossible - after all Pip was in Soft Heap with Alan and Hugh that year (alongside being in National Health), and Tomkins had no prior history with Gilgamesh when he started playing with them in 1977, taking over from Mike Travis.

Ratledge is a beast behind the keys, no question. I need to put on some Soft Machine when I get home from work this evening.

Currently listening to Egg's "A Visit To Newport Hospital". I don't think I ever get tired of hearing this one. Several months back I saw Egg's first LP in a local record store and now I'm wishing I'd bought it. Not sure what condition it was in, or if it might have been a reissue.

Hé lost interest in music, and felt he’d said everything he had to say in this medium. That’s basically it. He was weary of the Soft Machine «*legend*» too, and of people complaining that it no longer had Kevin, Robert and/or Hugh...

^^ But mostly the complaining was because nobody remained from the people that produced the 4 first brilliant albums. Mike was the last. The name remained. Back in the days, that was a unique instance I think.

Ah, we've had this discussion so many times before. It no longer matters, that's for sure. We've seen far worse, and precisely in terms of quality. The latest Soft Machine was good enough.

Having come into 'mesh by way of Tune in the first place, I always wondered why it apparently wasn't held in higher regard. Because yeah sure, the melodies themselves are rather understated...

Yes, because the first is easier to digest, and applies more to melodic sympho-weenies, while the second is more avant, which means that you cannot listen to it in the background while washing the dishes, it's very easy to drift and lose the thread, you have to glue your ass on a chair and really pay attention to it, so as not to miss the...yes...intricacy, and all the subtleties, because indeed Gowen is a master of subtleties,yes.

I still haven't decided though which one of the two I like best. Possibly because I haven't decided yet if I am a crypto-sympho-weenie or an avant-devourer-of-human flesh-tiger.